By TellZim Reporter
Masvingo Provincial Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Noel Zulu was earlier this week acquitted of culpable homicide charges he was facing by Masvingo Magistrate Bishard Chineka.
Zulu had been charged after being arrested following a police report by relatives of the late Gladys Sibanda Mapwashike after an autopsy on the latter’s body discovered a cotton gauze in her abdomen that was allegedly left after an operation by Zulu eight years ago.
He was acquitted on the basis that the evidence brought forward by the state witnesses held no water.
The pathologist who did the autopsy, Dr Godfrey Zimbwa said the cause of death was liver cirrhosis and the swab that was found in the abdomen could have contributed to a lesser extent.
The magistrate also said it was not the duty of the surgeon to account for the missing cloth as there are nurses who are responsible for that so the court could not prosecute Zulu for that.
The state led by Liberty Hove stated that the actual cause of Gladys Sibanda Mapwashike’s death was not clear since she died eight years after the surgical operation.
The evidence brought forward stated that Mapwashike died after attending a rally and there was suspected food poisoning and a post mortem was done on July 18 2023 at Masvingo Provincial Hospital by Dr Zimbwa.
The postmortem’s results stated that Mapwashike’s liver had shrunk and there were also abdominal fluids outside the intestines which contributed to her death as she had liver cirrhosis.
Dr Zulu’s defense lawyer Tymore Tabana said the cloth was sterilized to avoid harm to the patient and also liver cirrhosis, abdominal fluid and the cloth might have caused the death although the three are not related.
Court observations stated that it was not the duty of the surgeon to account for the consumables during an operation as it was the duty of a scrub nurse to account for them before and after the operation thus the fault was the scrub nurse’s for failing to account for the cloth.
The judgement also stated that the state failed to bring any of those who were present during the operation to also give an account of what transpired during the surgery.
The court also relied on Dr Zimbwa’s evidence who said the primary cause of death was liver cirrhosis and the cloth was a peripheral cause.
The court further said the state was hunting in the dark as it did not know the actual cause of death since the case had poor evidence to show that Zulu committed the culpable homicide offense and could not speculate without clear evidence since Dr Zimbwa dismissed the cloth as the cause of death.
